4 October 2007

Server issues arise

We’ve been implementing a Joomla/Virtuemart storefront to replace our Joomla/Virtuemart storefront, this time updated and hackless. But the trick to it is that we still have to hack it, without hacking any core files… This is tricky indeed, a coworker hipped me to the

ob_get_clean()

method in PHP, this enables you to look at certain code chunks spit out to html, then replace them before processing. This takes care of most hacks needed however we implemented a lightbox bit for product images, this required some core modifications slightly.

Now the question I have is, when your “reinventing the wheel” as my boss calls it, but it’s to redo something already done, is it in fact … a waste of time, or are you building a better tomorrow?

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6 September 2007

Betas and Broomsticks

Yesterday we started experimenting with Magento as a possible Multistore solution for our company.  Yes, I know what your thinking, it’s no where near Release Candidate!  We have been experimenting with a Multi-Store module for Zen-Cart, I just dislike how the templates are put together for look and feel.  Magento seems to show great promise though!  More on how this unfolds, hopefully the upcoming beta releases of Magento are fairly solid as my boss wants to go into production status on a Beta…

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23 August 2007

Has anyone seen my personal life?

So I’ve “forgotten” about my site for a few weeks, my apologies to all. I have been tremendously busy at work as of late. I am currently preforming on a level of 3+, and no that’s not just my charisma there, I’m working on a couple different sides of the box lately, just trying to break out of the box concept.  Things are not all bad though, I may be getting a reward shortly of a new MacBook Pro, as I have been working at home as well as the office, and we are doing Interprise/Win2k3 server stuff my G4 here at home isn’t going to cut it, and I need the dual monitor workspace for productivity. So I will be getting a MacBook to take back and forth, that’ll be cool however it will probably end up meaning that I’m expected to do more work than I am doing currently

No biggie, we are getting caught up at work and I feel like there’s a light at the end of the tunnel, kinda. At any rate, I’ll be posting up some of the exciting things I’ve been working on in the very near future (so you can stop thinking I’m more bark than bite)!

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2 August 2007

Random Thought

So I have been working back in design and development for the past few months again, and that got me to thinking about some of the places I’d worked in the past.  Here at Multicom I enjoy design freedom, great atmosphere and my ideas and opinions are valued.  That wasn’t always the case though, in fact some places I didn’t mesh well with because they wanted Cookie Cutter websites with no real flair, sadly the first and foremost in my mind for this was working for an idiot named Lou off of Broadway near the St. Louis riverfront.  But I feel that even out of the industry professionally for a few years I’m still designing stronger than his people ever could, and my company makes 75% more money per job than his (and we crank them out twice as fast).  So a little vindication on my part is to know that I’m in a totally better place now Maybe for fun I’ll get my sales guys to go after his clients, it’s been over two years since I’ve worked there so I have no qualms with ethics on that one.

It’s been a long road for me in the last nine years or so of being a programmer/designer/forward thinker/drinking champ, but I’m still holding up.Anyway, on to the latest and greatest.  I’ve been super busy at work last few days with a rush job for Warner Brothers, they’re sponsoring a fun greenscreen project for the Warped Tour 2007.  My company built the system and I had to get a retreival website knocked out in short time, but you can see it at tsnevents.com but please be good, it’s a live data collection site, so entering your details will surely get you spammed up!  The trickiest part of this was trying to figure out PNG transparency with only a Mac and a few Windows boxes around (all of which had IE7).

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25 July 2007

OMG, Work!

Well, it has been busy, not bad per say but busy nonetheless. After a trying ordeal with Meijer and Harry Potter’s book release we’re tossed headlong into another Warped Tour project for Warner Brothers.

During this trying time my company has decided to get rid of the waste that was our former engineer/asp programmer/person who did so much wrong that I’m constantly fixing stuff person. In his place a new asp.NET programmer has been hired, I like him because he’s from a Linux background, and I’m a mac so BSD/UNIX/Linux is right up my alley. Unfortunately he walked into this gig at an incredibly stressful time, he has had to get something to work for a Green Screen project that has him at a learning curve. He will pull it off I think, he’s 99% done at present. My biggest gripe lately is that I was hired on as a graphic artist/web designer and I’ve been a sysadmin, graphic quickie, tech support guy since I walked into this position. I know a bit about everything that is involved with the internet, but all of the extra responsibility has left me not able to achieve my graphic artist job in doing our companies storefront redesigns. But they are getting me the tools in under a week to be stronger in my design abilities. I am used to working multi-display, I’m on three here at home, but at work I’m stuck with an Intel Mac Mini, this leaves no options for even a dual display But we have on order a new 20″ iMac for me, which I’ll chain my 20″ widescreen Sceptre HD monitor next to, yay for working at full speed after that!

At any rate, I have been working ten to twelve-hour days the past two weeks so I haven’t written, and am heading to bed now. I’ll try to get back to writing more!

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7 July 2007

Outlook on the Day’s Events

It’s late, and I’m fighting the urge to go to bed… Family Guy marathon was on the tele this evening and I got the last load of stuff from our landlords after work, today is a somewhat joyous occasion for my wife and I, we severed the ties from the negativity known as rent and are fully owners! This has been a week of hell for me at work, as well as home. WORK WOrk Work as it were, making the impossible possible at the paying gig, then moving all of our stuff after hours. My iPod almost died this week since my compy wasn’t hooked up to recharge the device, god I didn’t realize how much an asset this little thing is!

At any rate, the Meijer Potter project at work has been kicking my ass, but I think that the programmer and I have it under control finally. Both compys here and at work have been flaking on me. The intel mini has been having audio issues as well as slow reboots, here at home I can’t get the box to wake from sleep!?! I am sure I’ll figure it out but until then, it’s time for sleep myself, we have a fairly big get together going on tomorrow and I have to be sharp!

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22 May 2007

The client and You

I’ve been working with a client for one of those ASAP type projects, only they have kept changing their mind on the creative direction. With around two hours till deadline I was able to whip them out something that they liked.

Now if they would have allowed our creative input from the get go, we could have had time for any possible revisions. I suppose I’m just trying to be logical, that rarely works.

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24 April 2007

Day Two @ Work

It’s been a bit hectic starting out here, I’ve had to hit the ground running, but so far I really like what I’m doing here at Multicom!

I’m using an Intel Mac at work and a nice Sceptre x20 (1080p HD) monitor which are both making my machine at home very jealous…

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